General Ulysses S. Grant by Edward Longacre

Author:Edward Longacre [EDWARD G. LONGACRE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2011-12-23T16:00:00+00:00

As he withdrew on January 2, Sherman learned that McClernand had reached the Yazoo with orders to take control of the Vicksburg expedition. When the two generals met, McClernand provided details of Grant’s retreat to Holly Springs and points north. “This, then,” Sherman recalled, “fully explained how Vicksburg was being reenforced [sic]. I saw that any attempt on the place from the Yazoo was hopeless; and, with General McClernand’s full approval we all came out of the Yazoo [country], and on the 3d of January rendezvoused at Milliken’s Bend, about ten miles above.” The following day, McClernand, angry about having his army stolen from him, assumed command of the forces that had failed at Chickasaw Bluffs.31

On January 9, just before he left Holly Springs for Memphis, Grant received a telegram from Halleck asking how many troops he could send to Sherman. Grant had been out of contact with his subordinate for almost three weeks and did not know whether Sherman had received the telegram telling of his withdrawal; but he assured Halleck that he would do “everything possible for the capture of Vicksburg.” As soon as he reached Memphis, Grant swallowed his pride and notified McClernand, whom he addressed as “Comd.g Expedition of Vicksburg,” that having been out of contact with him for so long, his “wants and requirements all [had] to be guessed at.” He added: “I am prepared to reinforce you immediately with one Division from my old command[,] one brigade from Gen. [Samuel R.] Curtis’ and one brigade coming from Gen. Wright’s Dept.” The last item was a reference to Major General Horatio G. Wright, the current commander of the Department of the Ohio, headquartered at Cincinnati. Grant was willing to do this much for a colleague he disliked and distrusted because “this expedition must not fail.”32

At the time he wrote, he did not know that McClernand had decided to forgo an immediate advance against Vicksburg. He had instead taken Sherman’s advice to attack and neutralize Fort Hindman, also known as Post of Arkansas, fifty miles above the mouth of the Arkansas River and 120 miles below Vicksburg. This bastioned position, held by five thousand Confederates under Brigadier General Thomas J. Churchill, commanded a staging area for gunboats that could be sent into the Mississippi to complicate an advance on Vicksburg. On January 11, after Admiral Porter’s ironclads and gunboats had softened up the position, McClernand assaulted it with ground forces that had landed on both sides of the river. The poorly planned and uncoordinated attack was beaten back, but the accurate shelling of Porter’s fleet silenced all but one of the fort’s seventeen guns and persuaded the garrison to surrender.33

When Grant, on January 11, learned of the attack, he was far from impressed. He cabled Halleck that McClernand had “gone on a wild goose chase”–criticism he softened only after receiving a message from Sherman assuming responsibility for suggesting the operation and explaining why he considered it necessary (“As long as the Post of Ark. Existed on

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.